Shelly Cruze's store, Mayfair Liquor, was once a target of a robbery and once was enough.

"Of course the hood was up and it was drawn," said Cruze.

So now, Shelly has a clear message to customers even before they walk in. No hoodies, hoods or masks.

"When you go into a place they need to see your face. That's just human contact, that's communication is to see your face," said Cruze.

Shelly's rule could eventually be law.

After consulting with the Department of Public Safety, Senator Don Barrington has authored a bill that would make it unlawful to wear a mask, hood or covering during the commission of a crime or to intentionally conceal his or her identity in a public place.

There are provisions. Such as, pranks of children on Halloween religious beliefs and special events like a parade, masquerade party or weather.

But if you wear a hood with ill intentions, you could be slapped with a misdemeanor fine of $50 to $500 and or one year in jail.

Walking into a store armed with a 9mm is perfectly fine, but don't come in here wearing no damn hoodie.

Others, however, have argued that bans on hoodies — no matter the intention — only serve to exacerbate problems with racial profiling. CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin took on the issue when an Indiana mall banned the garment in March:

“This is about the pretext of being able to stop young African-American males,” she said. “Hoodie is code for ‘thug’ in many places and I think businesses shouldn’t be in the business of telling people what to wear. The Fourteenth Amendment protects us from this.”

↓ Story continues below ↓

Hostin argued that hoodie bans are similar to previous bans on sagging pants, in that both target clothing items or styles worn predominantly by black men. Because of that, Hostin said, the bans give businesses and police officers an excuse to racially profile.

“When do we get to a place in our society where we stop doing this kind of thing?” she continued. “Where we stop targeting young black men so there is a pretext for being allowed to escort them out of a mall simply because of what they’re wearing?”

Similar laws banning hoodies and other face-coverings are already on the books in 10 states around the country, according to a report in Time Magazine. Several businesses in New York City have taken it upon themselves to prohibit hoodie-wearing in their stores.

Comments

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service (revised 3/17/2016) for information on our posting policy.

Matt Schlapp, whose wife works in the Trump administration told Fox News before Mike Flynn's sentencing hearing on Tuesday and before Flynn reaffirmed his guilty plea to Judge Sullivan, that it's Comey and others in the FBI who should [...]